1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a measuring apparatus suitably applied to immunoassays and various medical inspections based on the chemical luminescence method and to biochemical reactions. More specifically it relates to a measuring apparatus which can perform two types of assays in a single inspection equipment, a chemical luminescence immunoassay (CLIA) in which a target substance emits light immediately after being supplied a trigger reagent and a chemical luminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLEIA) in which the amount of light from a target substance stabilizes a predetermined time after reaction with a substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
As is known, the immunoassay based on the chemical luminescence has the advantage of a very high sensitivity and thus a high measurement reliability. As to light generation, there are a variety of principles, such as one which produces luminescence immediately after the supply of a trigger reagent as in CLIA and one which produces a stabilized amount of light a predetermined time after reaction with a substrate as in CLEIA. Depending on the light generating principle used, a luminous reagent may or may not need to be supplied during the light intensity measurement. Hence, the mechanism of the apparatus varies according to the light generating method adopted.
Further, in the case of immunoassays based on the chemical luminescence method, because light must be strictly shielded during the measurement of light, it is practically impossible for a single test equipment to perform immunoassays with different light measuring principles under a strict light shielding condition. For this reason, it has been required that a dedicated automatic inspection apparatus be used that performs only those assays based on the same light measuring principle.
The present invention has been accomplished under these circumstances and has the following objectives.
It is a first object of this invention to provide an improved measuring apparatus.
It is a second object of this invention to provide a measuring apparatus with versatility which allows a single test equipment to perform different types of assays that are based on different light generating principles or use a variety of reagents.
It is a third object of this invention to provide a reliable measuring apparatus which can perform assays in a strictly shielded atmosphere with high precision, efficiently and swiftly.
It is a fourth object of this invention to provide a measuring apparatus which allows performance of assays with simple operations and has good operability.
It is a fifth object of this invention to provide a measuring apparatus which is simple in construction and inexpensive.